Breaking Fate
by Crazy ASN
Summary: Earthrealm is free, but freedom came at a high price. Her protectors dwindling in numbers seem to have no hope, until a chance meeting when a new world touched theirs starts a series of events that may just see their dark future changed once again.
1. Chapter 1

Unforgivable.

It was absolutely unforgivable. Such a heinous violation would NOT be tolerated. Arceus would shudder in his slumber for the very thought of the atrocity that had befallen their world.

Palkia roared at its Time Dragon counterpart, baring its teeth. "YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS!"

Dialga snarled back in kind, eyes flaring cobalt. "I HAVE NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR THAT WHICH CONCERNS YOUR PETTY SPACE PROBLEMS!" it thundered, doing its best to restrain itself from performing the Roar of Time in its foil's face.

"You allowed Time to be manipulated, and now Space is tearing like foliage to a Scyther's wrath!" Palkia accused. "If you do not take responsibility for your element and the balance, then who shall?"

Dialga thrashed its head indignantly and stamped its feet. "If it were a crime against Time itself, I would have seen to it! Even Arceus will not have foreseen this cataclysm."

"But it has happened and you must FIX it!" Palkia growled. As it stomped forth to tower over Dialga, Spear Pillar's tall crystalline structures rattled and rippled suddenly, but it was not because of the great Spatial Pokémon's steps.

There was a ripple on the fabric of Reality, and a dark, shadowy portal appeared between them and took both Pokémon's attentions. Trailing with wisps of the black matter, spreading its bat-like wings and roaring to announce its entrance, Giratina materialised in its Altered Forme, six legs landing heavily on the floor of Spear Pillar as it faced the rest of its trio.

"Cease your bickering," rumbled the Renegade Pokémon, eyes flashing red. "There is work to be done. Grave circumstances have arisen."

Dialga and Palkia snorted and pawed at the ground as they turned to the Dimension Master. Palkia's eyes flashed and it advanced on Giratina. "Giratina, was Time's distortion the reason for this disaster? Do you speak of the same quarrel?"

Giratina hissed. "Dimensions collided where they never should have, Space is crumbling and Time's course changed to make it happen," it replied. "But cease your petty arguments. Pokémon from this world have been pulled into another that I cannot reach for fear of worsening the rifts between here and their destination. Arceus forbid we allow this to pass. We will fix this, and then you may fight with one another."

"Who is to take the blame for this?" Dialga grumbled aside, beating its tail on the floor moodily.

"Neither of you," Giratina said gruffly. "The instance occurred on the other side, in the other dimension with which we collided with. One from there is to blame."

"May Arceus' Judgement rain down upon them!" Palkia spat, swiping its claws. "I shall trap them in an empty reality of darkness and torture worse than Darkrai's eternal nightmare!"

"Silence!" Giratina roared with such staggering authority at the hot-headed Palkia that it did indeed fall silent. "Enact whatever retribution you may please, but first we must see to rescue our fellow Pokémon from the perils beyond. Would you allow them to suffer because of tardiness by your own anger?"

At this, both Dialga and Palkia stood down, rumbling and grinding their teeth. Giratina gave a contemptuous snort and turned, tail lashing the ground as it returned via its portal from whence it had come. Like Mareep being herded along, Palkia and Dialga followed due suit. Once Dialga's tail had vanished into the wormhole, there was a shudder and the hole closed behind them, leaving Spear Pillar empty.

* * *

They emerged in the Distortion World, and both Palkia and Dialga seemed visibly uneasy. This was Giratina's turf, where the antimatter-manipulator dwelt and ruled; they had no place here. Gravity shifted islets in the hazy dark purple air, and the ground underfoot seemed to be conspiring against them. Giratina walked, moving the world in its wake with every six of its steps, Palkia and Dialga following closely behind.

After a while, Giratina reverted into its Origin Forme and took to slithering through the air in order to pick up speed – in its serpentine form with its bristling, claw-like wing-appendages, it seemed to look more natural in the uncanny environment it ruled. Still in the lead, it showed the way to a place deep within its lair, and its counterparts began to grow slightly restless.

"Where do you take us?" Palkia rumbled, fixing its gaze steadily on Giratina.

"I shall show you what you need to see," Giratina responded cryptically. "I shall show you the world beyond the rift."

"And then what? We go forth and hunt down the perpetrator?" Dialga asked on, perhaps sounding a tad too eager.

Giratina seemed to growl in a way that was like an irritated parent talking to impatient children. "No. We shall look. Observe. The both of you, as well as myself, have much work to do to repair the imbalances which you did not see to because of your need to squabble. I think you would find this world very… interesting."

They continued on into the heart of the dimension, into a nexus of shimmering forms and hazy, barely familiar shapes. The path stopped abruptly, leaving a thin walkway of floating land on which Giratina stood at the end of, over what appeared to be an abyss. Palkia and Dialga flanked it, and Giratina flared its eyes before opening its mouth and roaring, a whirlwind spinning into the empty chasm and opening a window before them all.

The world they saw inside the viewing portal was a strange one that seemed to be familiar and yet greatly alien. There was sky, ground, trees and buildings, and Palkia and Dialga were captivated by the sights Giratina was showing them. Gallant and grand temples with sweeping Oriental roofs existed, as well as concrete havens of skyscrapers and wide plains with forests. But as they continued to watch and the images shifted, they began to see that parts of the cityscape were crumbled and smashed like a wild mob of Hydreigon or any other brutally destructive Pokémon had been unleashed. Human inhabitants ran, in fear or just amok, and they witnessed the burning ruins of a temple structure with people outside wailing horribly and beating their chests as they cried for their fallen. Fields and green lands were full of ash and devastated to a point that even Celebi would reel in shock at the work it needed to do on it.

The scene then changed, to a place that looked far worse than just a desecrated civilisation. There was no civilisation, just wild creatures and barren desert with sickly rust-coloured sky. A forest full of trees with twisted faces so unlike the Sudowoodo's they only knew, these barky visages twisted into expressions of agony and bitter rage. They saw glimpses of four-armed creatures like hideous Machamps fighting what looked like half-human, half-Taurus monsters, and then humanoids with sharp teeth and blades coming out of their arms. Clashes, sickening squelches and battle cries were heard by the Legendaries watching, until the panorama mercifully decided to change from the chaos.

The final scene was that of a fiery, dark and brimstone-filled place that Groudon or a Heatran would've fancied as a home. Despite this, it still gave them all a sense of unease as they saw lava pools and fiery pits filled with charred remains of things they didn't wish to identify. Deformed shadows shrieked and danced around the stinking, sulphurous land and the sound of tearing and searing followed their implacable claws. The hellish image soon rippled away without any further elaboration on the terror that lurked in that world, and Giratina was finished. It turned back to them, gaze boring into the Temporal and Spatial Pokémon evocatively.

"Those were the places where the Pokémon have been pulled into?" Dialga queried.

Giratina nodded gravely. "And thankfully no further. That world is a strange world of six 'realms', so it is alleged. The separate scenes of the ruined, the conflicting and the fire pits were three of them. The rescue parties needn't look farther than those in order to find them."

"So… there are already parties looking and gathering?" Palkia asked.

Giratina nodded once more. "Our concerns lie with repairing the damage before anything else. But you needed to see the state and gravity of the situation. We shall investigate the places further after our duties are done. Is that clear?"

Palkia and Dialga looked at one another, and then to Giratina. "_Yes,_" they boomed in unison.

Giratina looked out to where the images had been floating, seeming to test the air with a huff, a tease of its portal-making breath. "They are dangerous worlds for normal Pokémon, but for any Legendary it should be reasonable to tackle. The recovery teams are organised and efficient; they should round up any of the lost before harm can be done, hopefully."

Palkia thought about the alien world they had witnessed terrible glimpses of, and imagined vulnerable Pokémon wandering around in them without knowing what to do until a search party found them. It hurred. "What, pray, may those worlds be called, if any at all?" it rumbled out.

Giratina inclined its head, flexing its many 'wings'. "The worlds themselves, the 'realms', have separate names. As of now, the teams have recovered many from the last two, respectively named Outworld and the Netherrealm; the most perilous ones. Only the place of the first image is left to scour and incidentally, I suspect the cataclysm may have originated from there." Giratina's eyes flashed and its neck craned its head lower.

"_Earthrealm."_


	2. Chapter 2

"We move out today."

The blonde woman looked up at the large figure with bright eyes standing in the doorway, and then looked over to her male cohort sitting silently in the corner bandaging his hand. Once he was done, the man nodded to the figure in the doorway and stood up, offering a hand to his friend. She took it and steadied herself, as her sprained ankle was deciding to be fussy today. They approached the tall man in the conical hat awaiting them outside the room slowly and carefully, supporting each other. "Raiden…" the woman started.

"The helpers have kindly gathered your belongings in the lobby," Raiden said to his companions. "We must be swift." His bright white eyes glanced down to the blonde woman, at her injured foot. "Do not over exert yourself, Sonya." He nodded to the man. "Thank you for helping her, Johnny."

Sonya and Johnny nodded and began to make their way down, Raiden flanking them. It was a few hours before dawn now, and the inhabitants of their shelter – a Shaolin temple – were mostly asleep so they made sure to tread lightly. None of the trio had really slept anyway: the two humans knew they were to leave promptly and remained alert for the imminent call up, and Raiden never slept at all on an ever vigilant watch.

Sonya held onto Johnny until they'd come down the stairs, and they found their travel items on the floor off to the side of the main hall; just two plain bags stuffed with essentials like changes of clothing and medical supplies in the case of injury. The woman managed to limp over at a reasonable pace to pick up her bag, and then Johnny's to offer it to him as he came up. He took it wordlessly, but gave her a look of question at her load to which she declined, "I'll manage."

"Don't overdo yourself, babe," Johnny said back, a hint sternly.

They then joined Raiden, who was already out of the doors. Quickly coming down the steps with him, they gathered in the courtyard out the front of the monastery and nodded to each other knowingly. With that, Raiden raised his hand and the other two seemed to tense in anticipation when static was felt thick in the air. At once, blue-white lightning crashed around them and engulfed them in its bright light, creating a volatile pillar of crackling electrical energy that did little more than shift some dust on the ground. When the air had cleared, the trio were nowhere to be found. A couple of monks looked out of their windows, stirred from the noise, but otherwise untroubled by the violent departure.

It was silent once more.

* * *

They reappeared outside another temple-like structure with sweeping roof and tall pillars holding up the veranda at the top of a flight of stone stairs. Sonya huffed a little at the obstacle but when Johnny silently offered another aid, she waved him off. Their overseer watched and continued to flank them, checking and surveying the quiet area behind them all briefly before following up.

As they came up to the front of the structure, the two humans noticed that the doors seemed to be barred shut by a large beam with a chain and padlock on it. Johnny and Sonya stopped outside it and turned to wait for Raiden to join them before Johnny pointed out, "Is this supposed to be like this?"

"Many vacated their abodes when Outworld invaded, others simply pretended to have," Raiden said. "Mercifully, it seems that the invading forces ignored any places that appeared to be uninhabited. We may take shelter in this building, for I know there are monks willing to offer hospitality here. We must enter through the back."

The humans nodded understandingly and followed as Raiden walked past the blocked door and around the side of the main building, along past window spaces that looked as if they'd been boarded shut hastily with scrap wood, or had bricks placed strategically on the sills to block sight from between the shutters.

They came to a door at the side – a normal, slightly battered wooden door that had a few splintery gaps in its frame. They stood outside, waiting, and Johnny looked as if he considered knocking until there was an audible scuffle from within the dead-looking complex. A small rattle of the rickety door in its hinges, and some murmurs; they continued to wait patiently. Eventually, it opened a fraction with a creaking noise, and the pale face of a man in monastery garb gazed out fearfully.

They didn't need to say a thing when the monk's eyes fell on Raiden, and he bowed his head in nervous reverence, opening the door wider to allow them admittance. Raiden lowered his hat's brim to the man in acknowledgement, and stepped aside to let Johnny and Sonya pass in before him.

They found themselves walking through a kitchen area by the looks of it, with monks at sideboards and sinks cleaning things, sweeping the floor and surfaces and sorting pots and pans in acceptably wonky stacks. It was dimly lit and it was evident with the low humdrum that there was actually little productive activity; many monks were just sitting, huddled with one another, and there was barely any scent or sight of actual food. Presumably, as they were in hiding, the poor monks had been too afraid to venture for supplies during the invasion and were making do with stored rations that would only come out in times of necessity. Now, though, it was likely that their suppliers or wherever they obtained their food were not readily available as before, so there was nothing much to go on.

The man who'd opened the door was now being spoken to by Raiden in hushed tones, having closed the door and darkened the kitchens further. As they passed, many monks bowed their heads at Sonya and Johnny and they returned looks of gratefulness for their accepting them into the evidently already-crowded shelter.

The sombre atmosphere continued even as one man stood up and opened the door for them to show them out into the rest of the building. Raiden was still lingering behind, but Johnny and Sonya knew that it was his own business to attend to. The monk silently led them through some narrow corridors out into a hallway, and showed them upstairs to where there were living quarters. They came eventually to a small room that was perhaps enough a squeeze for two. There were some monks carrying out what looked like their worldly belongings, and others carrying in bedding. The ones exiting the room crossed the corridor, and were let into bedrooms of their fellows where the two visitors could see there were already at least five in each small room, sitting on bedding arranged uniformly on the floor. Gazes lingered on them, but were void of any hostility or resent.

"I… We don't want to be of any trouble," Sonya said to their guide, as the evacuated monks closed themselves into their crowded rooms. She watched as their room was prepared swiftly by others. "Really, if it means we have to displace you…"

The man smiled, more in his eyes as his face evidently was one that used those muscles little. "It would be against our practice to refuse our guests comfort," he assured her. "Even at the expense of our own. Come, your quarters are ready now." The monks who'd prepared the bedding and cleaned the room for them exited, nodding at them, and the man gestured in for them to enter.

They hesitantly did so, and the monk lingered by the door as they put down their things and inspected the small premises. There was one proper bed and another had been set up on the floor beside a small table and a cupboard by the window. Before the monk left, Sonya turned and called, "Excuse me… Thanks."

"It is our pleasure," he replied readily.

"Listen," Sonya said, walking nearer to the monk as Johnny looked out of the window. "Is there anything we can do…?"

He looked aside, down the corridor housing more of his monk brethren huddled in their rooms. "You are saving our world, what more can you do for us?" he said earnestly. "Money and material wealth means little to us monks. The monastery is just an abode, enough we have a roof over our heads to call one. Food is hard to come by but we have sufficient supplies to manage." He turned to face them again. "We shall serve you meals when you please, just ask any of us. You are in need of nutrition more than us if you are to venture constantly with Lord Raiden."

The duo was unable to argue with such open selflessness. The conversation was halted by the rather sudden arrival of Raiden, who startled even the monk when he turned and found himself face-to-face with the Thunder God – or rather, face-to-chest, since Raiden was seven feet tall. As the monk humbly bowed to the god and stepped aside, Raiden's eyes were soft as he recognized the monk's kindness. He then looked to Sonya and Johnny, who stood to attention.

"I have heard that there may be yet more remnant Outworld forces in the immediate area of the monastery," Raiden reported. "I shall go to investigate, for it appears from the accounts that it is a very minor case." He saw his companions beginning to move, but held up his hand. "I will go alone. You are both injured."

They knew it was pointless to protest against Raiden's word, so Sonya and Johnny sat down and stepped back respectively. The monk was still on the other side of the door, and averted his gaze as Raiden stepped past him. The Thunder God threw a look back at his companions in the room before he disappeared from sight, his radiant eyes soft for a moment and showing them an ageless wisdom confined to a weary body. "Rest yourselves, I will return before noon," he said in words. _Don't worry about me, _was what the look said.

With that, he was gone. Moments later, they caught a glimpse of a bright flash outside, and paid little heed to the deep boom of thunder that followed it.

* * *

The creature sniffed the air when it heard it. _Thunder._ But where was it coming from? Where was the oncoming storm? The dark, foreboding clouds harbouring their rain? Where was the lightning cresting the sky in magnificent arcs? This world was so strange, having thunder without lightning, complexity without life.

It scuttled around the base of a crumbling, weather-worn pillar, looking around for any signs of existence. The air was dry despite there being only a thin sun, and it choked on some dust it kicked up in its movements. Sneezing, the creature swivelled its long, perky ears around to listen for anything that wasn't the stifled, moaning wind. Its large black eyes scrutinised the immediate area once again before it slunk out from the shade of its little hiding spot.

Its yellow paws were stained with the red earth now, and it stood on its hind legs momentarily to dust off, looking remarkably human for a second as it patted its forepaws together and rubbed them against each other to rid the dirt from between its toes. It got down again and crawled back to the bare ruin, wondering what to do next. It considered staying put so that it could be found easily by rescuers, if any. But wouldn't it also possibly be easy for hostile creatures to find it? Perhaps it should move and leave trails, signs, so it could be found by its fellows. But what to do exactly? The wind would turn tracks and markings and carry away scents.

It sat with its back against the pillar, harrumphing to itself as it watched the low-lying sun. It'd been up all night waiting for something and staring at the moon, so perhaps it was time to get some rest and contemplate the situation. So far it hadn't come across anything totally dangerous save a wild, savagely barking creature that it had managed to evade the night before. It was just odd to find traces of human work without humans.

Sniffing, the creature lay on its side and curled up, staring at the sideways ground it had up against one of its red cheeks. Perhaps that was the best option: Sleep.

With a sigh it turned over, yawned, and closed its eyes, a gentle snore coming from its black button nose. It was fast asleep long before it could hear the danger approaching from a mere few hundred yards away.


End file.
